Washington, Oct 3 (PTI): Describing the abrogation of Article 370 as a “long-awaited” step and the “right thing” to do, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has said, it is expected from Pakistan to pull out all stops to challenge the decision as it has made deep investment in fuelling terrorism in Kashmir. “Pakistan will paint apocalyptic scenarios because, one, that is their wish, and two, that’s actually what their game plan has been for 70 years,” he added during his appearance at The Heritage Foundation, a top American think-tank.

 

THAT is the right phrase -- “deep investments”, by Pakistan in Kashmir to fuel terrorism. Dr. Jaishankar has described very precisely the reason why Pakistan is so disturbed with the abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir.

This “deep investment” business needs to be understood in straighter terms. Even though these issues have been discussed before on countless occasions, there is a need to rephrase those to refresh memory.

 

Pakistan’s ‘deep investment’, however, never remained restricted only to fuelling terrorism. Right from Day One, Pakistan kept dabbling in Kashmir, with a clear view to annex it militarily. And because its first strike, howsoever on the sly, yielded good result in the form of a big slice of Kashmir (thanks to the political ineptness and short-sightedness of India’s leadership then), Pakistan felt emboldened to keep making repeated attempts to snatch Kashmir from India. The ‘deep investment’, thus, is as deep as 72 years in terms of time, the massive funds infused into that activity notwithstanding. So badly entangled was Pakistan in the Kashmir issue that four wars and four defeats, including the one when the country was sliced into two, did not make the Pakistani leadership see reason. It kept making efforts in the most unnatural way to grab Kashmir.

 

But then, why should we talk of the unnatural efforts of Pakistan to annex Kashmir? For, by any definition, Pakistan is an unnatural State, without any natural justification for its existence by way of geography or culture or tradition. This unnaturalness peeps out of each action by Pakistan, under any dispensation.

 

Let us dart back in time to the late evening when Sir Cyril John Radcliffe, Law Lord in the British Council of Ministers, and the Chairman of the Boundary Commission, sat alone in the closeted room of his living quarters. Riots raged outside with the thought of Partition which had become clear to one and all.

 

The lore of history tells us that because the Boundary Commission was not in a position to draw a neat international dividing line, Sir Radcliffe sat alone to do the job and later have it ratified.

 

History further tells us that because he was running out of time demarcated by the British Government, Sir Radcliffe just ran the pencil across the map in the eastern as well as the western sectors. The Partition that ensued from that action, obviously, became the most unnatural and illogical event in world history, leading to terrible mass violence as well as massive confusion that nobody would be able to sort out.

 

It was in that chaotic time that some elements -- naturally major figures of the historical drama of the moment -- seem to have given the Pakistani leadership some kind of political pep talk that Kashmir could be annexed. That word, howsoever on the sly, was taken by Pakistan as a gospel truth.

 

In India as well, there were elements that almost colluded with Pakistan, though never in a stated manner. There are reasons to believe that the introduction of Article 370 of the Constitution of India in Kashmir was part of the machinations of those elements who did not mind keeping a loose arrangement in place, giving Pakistan a foot in the door.

 

What Dr. Jaishankar calls ‘deep investment’ by Pakistan, thus, has to be understood from such an angle.

The abrogation of Article 370, thus, snatched away from Pakistan’s hand a permanent tool to needle India all the time -- and possibly annex Kashmir somehow. For, that provision put restrictions on India’s rightful and full control of Kashmir. The abrogation of the wrong, thus, was the need of the moment, as stated clearly by eminent Jurist Adv. Harish Salve who said in London recently, “I think it was a mistake to allow it (Art. 370) and bigger mistake to allow it to fester. ... Some time, you have to cut the Gordian Knot ...”.

 

The trouble for Pakistan is that India now has a constitutional, moral and legal way to officiate in Kashmir to the fullest extent without any bar of the law. All the time and energy and money Pakistan has spent -- as its deep investment -- in Kashmir has now come to a naught. Hence its extreme irritation -- as all the machinations it built around Kashmir have become irrelevant.

 

There is no need to assert again and again that Kashmir is India’s internal matter. For, even such an assertion may give Pakistan an opportunity to say something and do something. Fortunately, the world has understood India’s standpoint and is unwilling to dabble in India’s internal matter. No matter what Pakistani Prime Minister Mr. Imran Khan may say, the world has rejected his idea. What is more, his appeal to the global Islamic Umma (brotherhood) also has failed to evoke much response. Nobody is willing to buy his ideation of Islamaphobia, a term nobody had ever used.

Thus, all kinds of investment which Pakistan made in Kashmir have proved to be useless in view of the smart move by India. In the future, Pakistan may try to create trouble, even push a

war on the subcontinent. No matter all that, the world now knows that all those malicious machinations are destined to fail.